[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12679-S12680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         THE BAD DEBT BOXSCORE

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, the skyrocketing Federal debt, now soaring 
toward $5 trillion, has been fueled for a generation now by 
bureaucratic hot air--and it's sort of like the weather, everybody 
talks about it but almost nobody did much about it until immediately 
after the elections in November 1994.
  But when the new 104th Congress convened this past January, the U.S. 
House of Representatives quickly approved a balanced budget amendment 
to the U.S. Constitution. On the Senate side, all but one of the 54 
Republicans supported the balanced budget amendment--that was the good 
news.
  The bad news was that only 13 Democrats supported it and that killed 
it for 

[[Page S 12680]]
the time being. Since a two-thirds vote--67 Senators, if all Senators 
are present--is necessary to approve a constitutional amendment, the 
proposed Senate amendment failed by one vote. There will be another 
vote either this year or in 1996.
  Here is today's bad debt boxscore:
  As of the close of business Tuesday, September 5, the Federal debt--
down to the penny--stood at exactly $4,968,612,934,278.22 or $18,860.94 
for every man, woman, and child on a per capita basis.


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